Hello, I am quite new to the forum and have been watching and learning for a while now. Your I insights have helped a lot with understanding my condition better thank you. I was diagnosed hyper at 17 and after 2 year on meds levels improved and I was taken off the medication. Fast forward 28 year or so…. I was diagnosed Hypo in July After 8 month with symptoms of varying degrees, now on 75mg levo and my symptoms have much improved. But recently I have been feeling jittery especially in the mornings, it somewhat eases during the day. Waiting for a gp appointment to review my lastest results although my tsh was marked as normal. I also had my ferritin tested and it was flagged as over range. I am a little confused by this as I thought levels tend to be low in hypo patients? Any advice would be great. Thank you in advance.
Tsh range 0.35 - 4.94
October 2.64
Sept 5.73
July 33.91
T4 range 9 - 19.1
Sept 12
July 8.9
Ferritin 302 (30 - 250)
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Horsti
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Can you please share whatever other results and ranges you have so we can see these 2 results in context :
Do you have a T3 and T4 result and range, an antibody result and range. and for instance ferritin can ' look ' high and be inflammation driven ?
What were you originally diagnosed with - there are 2 Auto Immune Diseases that present, initially in the same way, Hashimoto's and Graves - treatment for each is different -
On your bio it reads you recently became hyper again and now on T4 - Levothyroxine - is there a typo ?
My apologies yes it was a typo it meant say hypothyroid, I have changed it now.
When I was hyperthyroid i was not diagnosed with an autoimmune desease, but it being such a long time ago I am not sure if the doctors even tested for that. I had most of the symptoms of being hyper, but after a few years the doctor determined I was now fine and to be fair I felt fine for many year. However I suspect that was not the case I looked at some tsh test results from 2004 and 2016 and the tsh was always above 2, also my mother has hypothyroidism. Unfortunately there is no way for me to find out now, my test results from when I was hyper. I have added results and ranges in my original post. The gp only did tsh and t4. I only got the ferritin done because asked for it, I remembered I had low iron when I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. Thank you
So - in July 2023 your TSH was 33.91 and your T4 under range at 8.90 in a range of 9-19.10:and we generally feel best when the T4 is up in the top quadrant of it's range with a T3 result tracking slightly behind- was a Free T3 result and range run ?
So this looks pretty much as one would expect as since taking the T4 Levothyroxine your TSH has reduced into the range and your T4 increased into it's range :
T4 is a prohormone and needs to be converted by your body into T3 the active hormone that runs the body and it is too low a T3 for you that causes the symptoms of hypothyroidism.
Quite where your T4 needs to be within it's range to give you a good level of T3 is unique to you , but we generally feel best when the T4 up in the top quadrant of it's range with the T3 tracking slighty behind at around 65 % through it's range - or at around a 1/4 ratio T3/T4,
No thyroid hormone replacement works well until your core stength vitamins and minerals are up and maintained at optimal - I now aim for a ferritin at around 100 - folate around 20 - active B12 75++ ( serum B12 500++ ) and vitamin D t around 100.
Generally speaking when metabolism is slowed, as in hypothyroidism or fast as in hyperthyroiism, the body struggles to extract key nutrients through food no matter how well and clean you eat - as yes, low levels of vitamins and minerals are a common issue.
I'd suggest you get your vitamins and minerals checked out and ask for further testing and advice regarding your high ferritin level.
I would also ask if antibodies were run in July as to the cause of your hypothyroidism.
We generally feel best when the TSH is down at around 1 or even lower - especially if dealing with a thyroid AI disease -
Ideally we should all be dosed and monitored on Free T3 and FreeT4 results and not a TSH seen in isolation - and why many of us are forced o go private and run our own blood tests.
If you go into Thyroid UK - thyroiduk.org - the charity who supports this patient to patient forum, there is a whole page dedicated to Private Companies who can run the relevant blood tests for you - as well as various sections and information about all things thyroid to support and empower thyroid patients to better advocate for themselves.
The thyroid blood draw should be a fasting, early morning appointment, just taking in water over night and take your T4 for that day after the blood test so you have left a window of around 24 hours from last dose of T4.
If taking any supplements these need to be stopped about a week before the blood draw so we measure what your body is holding on to rather than what you've just ingested.
Please read the PIL as to when to take the Levothyroxine for optimum absorption.
hello and thank you that’s very helpful. Do you have any thoughts on why the ferritin might be so high? I now realised I have been taking a herbal supplement for perimenopause which contained between 3.5 and 7mg iron depending on how good I was remembering to take it, been on it on and off since May. Could that have pushed it over? It doesn’t seem very much but my diet is pretty good I eat quite a bit of meat, pate etc. also my t3 was never tested I gather I would propably have to go private to get that down.
As previous suggested inflammation can drive up ferriin levels but we don't have a reading for inflalmmation, nor thyroid antibodies, nor T3, or core strenth vitamins and minerals - so without a complete thyroid blood panel it's difficult to say much more.
Your doctor is best placed to fill in these blanks - and these results may well be on the computer anyway - do you have online access and can look for yourself ?
Request GP do full iron panel test to check if iron levels are also high
You need to test TSH, Ft4 and Ft3
Plus vitamin levels
Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)
Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or all relevant vitamins
Testing options and includes money off codes for private testing
Myself I didn't find the labs too helpful. The truth is I trusted the MD to interpret and he never gave me the numbers ,just kept upping the dose till I was at 75 mcg. I was foolish. I never had symptoms of hypothyroidism, but I sure as hell had symptoms of hyperthyroid when I was first placed on even 25mcg, but when I complained I was told I needed to get used to feeling normal. I suffered for 4 3/4 years before I would finally got smart or at least sick enough to know something was horribly wrong. That is when I found this site and another one I was on briefly where I met a woman who took the time and asked me a number of questions which sent me on a journey to do my own research. What was driven home to me and I should have realized is that when a lab number is "off" maybe it is not a failing gland. You have to know the root cause of why because glands don't spontaneously start failing !
Things like nutritional deficits of Iodine( are often at the root of thyroid issues,) Selenium very often are at the root also or even some drug you are taking for some other purpose. Then there is Reverse T3. I read the book " Medical Medium: Thyroid Healing " . It was somewhat helpful and then I also scanned You Tube for naturopaths who delt with thyroid. You can't take anything for gospel and no two people are carbon copies of another. Know the nutrients which impact the thyroid and list them in a pocket notebook for yourself and beside each the symptoms / signs when you have too much and too little .Then when you are feeling "off" consult your note book and use it as a sort of journal for yourself as well . You will become better at assessing yourself than even your doctor. It is a very hard lesson I had to learn. Lev. is a very powerful drug that can upset so very much . When you complain doctors very often throw up their hands and treat you like you are a nut! Hormones in fact are all very powerful drugs and not to be messed with. Soy is a food stuff that is in nearly everything and messes with your thyroid HUGE TIME . There is a site I can't recall the name off hand that names all the different names and forms of Soy and that is most helpful. It sure does mess with the thyroid! Fermented Soy is the safest to use if you really do like soy. I hope this will be helpful. I weaned myself off of Levo 9/2017 and it would take me nearly another 5+ years to get myself off the BP drugs cause the Lev had triggered an essential hypertension , meaning caused by Levo. Would have been nice if my doctor had told me instead of implying it was my fault I had developed an elevated BP with all it's issues. Like I say I hope this helps! Check back anytime, if I can add anything I will cause I know the cruel battle only too well!
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